1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery displaying apparatus for capturing and displaying an image of a periphery of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical vehicle periphery displaying apparatus captures an image showing a vehicle periphery situation and displays the captured image on a display device equipped in a vehicle compartment, in order to assist a vehicle driver. For example, JP-2006-262447A corresponding to US-2006/0187238A discloses that a wide angle camera having a wide angle of view in a horizontal direction captures an image of a vehicle periphery, and a display device displays the captured image on a screen located at a center part of a dashboard in a vehicle compartment. As is the case for JP-2006-262447A corresponding to US-2006/0187238A, a display device of a typical vehicle periphery displaying apparatus has a long dimension in the horizontal direction and is located at a center part of a dashboard.
The inventor of the present application has studied the following technique for a more safety driver assistance. A vehicle periphery image is not displayed on a display device arranged at a center part of a dashboard but displayed on a display screen arranged right before a driver seat. For example, a vehicle periphery image is displayed on a display screen arranged in an instrument panel. This arrangement of a display screen can reduce movement of viewpoint of a driver and can assist the driver in more safety and reliable manner.
The display screen arranged on an instrument panel may become smaller than a screen of the display device arranged at the center part of a dashboard, because an instrument panel needs to display thereon a variety of information, e.g., a speed indicator, an engine revolution indicator, a remaining gasoline amount indicator and the like. When sizes of and an arrangement of the speed indicator, the engine revolution indicator and the like are took into account, it may be preferable that the display screen on the instrument panel have a vertically-long-rectangular shape, and have a longer dimension in the vertical direction than that in the horizontal direction. When a wide angle camera having a wide horizontal angle of view captures an image and when a display screen having a vertically-long-rectangular shape displays the captured image, the displayed image may become poorly viewable because of narrowing the image in the horizontal direction. This is because the image for display has a horizontally-long-rectangular shape whereas the display screen for displaying the image has a vertically-long rectangular shape.